


Exit Wounds

by dream_vs_nightmare



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, F/M, Gremma, Multi, Rumbelle - Freeform, Snowing - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-27
Updated: 2014-04-08
Packaged: 2018-01-02 18:55:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1060359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dream_vs_nightmare/pseuds/dream_vs_nightmare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter Pan offers to bring one of Henry's loved ones back to life. But who will he chose? And how will it affect Emma, Neal, Regina, and the Charmings as they fight their way back to Storybrooke? Emma/Graham AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I thought the world needed another Gremma AU to fix all the sad fangirl feels out there. So I figured I'd start one.
> 
> Disclaimer: I still don't own OUAT or any of the songs I reference. I'm still pretty upset about it, but what are ya gonna do?

* * *

_"Nobody said it was easy; no one ever said it would be this hard. Oh, take me back to the start." - Coldplay_

"What if you could turn back the hands of time?" Peter Pan's voice echoed in her ears and all around the cave's walls. "Bring back a life that'd been lost too soon. Would you do it?"

He wasn't speaking to Emma; he was speaking to Henry. And as she watched the scene play out before her, she knew her son - her eyes moved to Regina's, then Neal's -  _their_  son, was standing tall in front of Neverland's darkest trickster, jutting out his chin even as he held his beating heart in the palm of his hand.

"Would I do it?" Henry paused, like he was thinking. "Well yeah, I would. See, even though my family's back together-" (And as he said this, Emma swore his eyes had flickered to the spot where she was standing) "-there's still someone missing."

Her own heart thundered in her ears as the thought occurred to her that a piece of Henry's heart, a piece of his life, could be empty somehow. How could there be someone else he needed? How could she live with herself as his mother, as one of his mothers, knowing that she could never fill that space?

"Someone missing? Who could possibly be missing from his life when he's got us?" Regina asked in a low murmur, mirroring her thoughts. "All of us."

"Shhh, let the kid talk a minute," Neal whispered, bringing a finger up to his lips to shush her.

Emma was momentarily impressed when Regina didn't say another word, but threw her hands up and cast a spell that amplified Pan's words instead.

She wanted to believe that the kid looked genuinely concerned when he tilted his head to the side and asked, "Someone missing? And who could that be, Henry?"

"My family and I…" He paused, and it sounded like he was swallowing hard so his voice wouldn't break on his words. "We uh….we don't talk about him that much anymore."

Pan nodded his head and let his arms fall to his sides. "I know what it's like to lose someone. I too, have lost. But I could bring him back for you."

"I want him back more than anything else," Henry asked as he dropped his gaze to the heart of the truest believer -  _his heart_  - laying in his hand. "But I can't ask you to do that for me."

She could see the lines of Pan's eyebrows cast deep shadows over his eyes when he said, "I could help you, Henry. Don't you want that?"

"I do." Henry said, nodding.

"All you have to do is place your heart into their body. With it, they can live the life they didn't get to finish. But if you give up your heart for this person, you will become forever in their debt. Can you live with that price?"

"I can." His voice became too hard, too grave for an eleven-year old, when he told Peter, "But there's someone I need to ask about it first."

And then he turned away from Pan, deep-blue eyes meeting hers in an instant when he said, "Mom? It's okay, I know you're there."

"Henry-" Emma's voice got caught in her throat and the bracelet she wore on her wrist, the bracelet she'd never taken off since the night the ambulance didn't get there fast enough, felt like it sunk a little deeper into her skin. "Henry, I don't know what you're asking me."

"Mom…I want to bring him back," Henry murmured as a single tear, gleaming silver in the shadows, rolled down his cheek and into the sand beneath his feet. "I want to bring Graham back. But I need to know if you're okay with that."

In that second, her heart beat so hard in the hollow of her ribcage that she could've sworn it was going to fly out of her chest and swell up like a live, thrashing thing on the ground.

"Emma," Neal's voice, rough as the gravel driveway they'd never had, echoed in the shell of her ear. "Baby, you know you don't have to do this if you don't want to. But if you do…." His breath was just a whisper on the wind, but in that breath she thought she could hear the sound of his heart breaking on the words he was about to say.

"If you do, I won't stop you. I'll still be here for you. I swear, I'm always here for you."

She swallowed hard at the sincerity in his voice - she'd needed to hear it since the day he'd left her hanging at the parking garage. Needed to hear it since the first night she'd spent in jail, writing his name on the wall with the dirt on her fingertips. And after all these years, she'd gotten it. He was finally being honest with her.

And it was time she was honest with him.

"When I said that all I cared about was getting our son back, I left something, or more accurately,  _someone_  out. I didn't want to open up an old wound again. So I thought..." She let out a sigh that made her sound so much older, so much more world-weary, than she really was. "I thought I could pretend I didn't still love him, because it would be easier for me to live a lie than bring up all the pain I went through over losing him."

She swore she could see Regina's face light up with recognition and her eyes glisten with tears as Emma held up her left arm for Neal to see - the bracelets that covered it were all important to her, but there was one that stood out the most. One that wasn't really a bracelet at all. She pointed to it in the shadows of the cave and put on a tight-lipped smile so her voice wouldn't break as she spoke.

"But I still wear this shoelace-" She swallowed hard. " _Graham's_  shoelace, every day, and I can't keep pretending that doesn't mean anything. I can't pretend that I don't have any feelings for him," She laughed at the way the tears ghosted down the bridge of her nose, struggled to speak for a minute as the weight of the confession washed over her. "Because I love him, too. And I probably always will."

And just like he had two days ago, Neal flashed her a smile that swept some of the shattered pieces of her heart back together again. It was raw and painful and it left an ache in her chest. That single smile told her everything she needed to know - that he did love her, that he'd always love her.

But it also told her the things he didn't say when he moved forward to kiss her on the forehead, then down the bridge of her nose. He held her there for a minute, lips still pressed against her skin. His hands were warm on her back and they felt good, comforting, as the heat of them sank through her tank top and lingered on her spine.

"Thank you, Emma," Neal murmured into her ear before he finally stepped away and waved her forward to let the others know what her choice was.

"Mom? Have you decided?" Henry's voice was quiet, like if he spoke too loud it'd shatter the spell, the hope, that seemed to have fallen over the cave.

"Yes, Henry," Emma said with a sure smile gracing her features. "I want you to bring Graham back."

She couldn't help but shiver from the crown of her head down to the tips of her toes when she heard Gold mutter, "true love wins again" under his breath.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this update took so long, but I hope there's enough of a plot twist to keep you interested until my next update!
> 
> Disclaimer: Sad to report that I (still) don't own OUAT. Can you believe it? 'Cause I can't either. I'm hoping to own the second season on DVD by my birthday, though!

 

* * *

_"To the leader, the pariah, the victor, the messiah - this is war." - 30 Seconds to Mars_ _  
_

When Emma looked to Gold (or The Darker One, as he'd started calling himself here) with raised eyebrows at his talk of true love, he only scoffed at her expression before turning to Pan.

Neverland's dark trickster had just finished telling Henry to give him his heart, but it seemed like Gold wasn't about to let that happen.

The gaze he gave the boy was nothing like the cool, detached looks he'd given the rest of them during their journey. And it was hardly the soft but smoldering gazes he gave to Belle back home. No, this gaze was something she had never seen on Gold's face before, and if she hadn't known him any better, she'd say it almost scared her.

"And what do you suppose you're going to do with his heart, Pan?" He sneered at him as the two circled each other. Henry managed to run to her side as soon as he saw an opening. She hugged him to her tight as the four of them watched the scene unfolding before them.

"Pan?" Neverland's darkest trickster echoed with the hint of a laugh. "And here I thought that you would call me more affectionate terms - like 'Father', or even 'Papa'." Pan's eyes glittered with amusement when he said, "You know I always did prefer 'Papa' best."

"Papa?" Neal echoed the word, confusion written all over his face as he stepped forward to come in between the two. "What...what's he talking about?"

"Do you two know each other?" Regina asked, seemingly still incredulous.

Emma, however, was quick to catch on, muttering, "Pan is Gold's father, guys."

"I do believe you're correct. And I also believe your boyfriend is getting in the way of the little surprise I've got planned for my dear old son," Pan said before pushing Neal to the ground. By the time his head had smacked the hard rock buried beneath the golden sands of the cave and knocked him out cold, Pan had already lunged at Gold and swiped Pandora's Box right out of his hands.

Watching the trickster toy with the spring on the box stirred a funny feeling in her stomach; she may not have remembered much about the myth of Pandora and her box, but she sure as hell knew that whatever reason Pan had for wanting to use it definitely wasn't a good one. She bolted from Henry's side to jump between the two of them just as Pan's fingers moved to activate the spring and, Emma realized with a jolt as hard as a kick in the teeth, trap Gold inside.

Emotions she couldn't place swam in Pan's eyes as he leaned close to her face, murmuring, "Well it looks like someone stepped up to play the role of the savior. And I must say, you do it rather well, Emma."

"Yeah. Maybe I do," She said as she readied her sword behind her back. She'd come to this place thinking that Peter Pan was nothing more than a kid - a lost, lonely kid like she had been for so long. And now she knew that he was nothing more than a lying, elusive, dark trickster of a man who hid behind a false front.

"But I'm afraid you'll have to play better than that," Pan said as he disappeared in a haze of dark green smoke, reappearing behind a Darker One that looked just as stunned as she must have almost a full minute later.

"Gold, no!"

She ran forward to put herself between the two of them again, but Gold pushed her away and onto the sand with the same sort of ease that Pan had done to Neal just minutes before.

"If this is the price I have to pay for what I've done to Bae, for what I've done to Belle, and for what I almost did to my grandson," The expression on his face grew darker and darker with every word, and the agony in his voice felt like it was replacing the air in the room when he murmured, "Then this is what I'll do. Villains don't get happy endings. And I am a villain, Emma."

The smile he regarded her with was so devoid of mirth she thought that it wasn't really a smile at all - it was the look of a man who had resigned himself to death as retribution for all the evils that he had done.

"You are not a villain," She said in a low voice from where she'd fallen in the sand, old wounds and new fears making her brave. Her arm had been pretty badly scraped up, and her shoulder hurt like hell. But she was still going. Behind her sat the (former?) Evil Queen of the Enchanted Forest and the (only?) love she'd never really gotten over, and she thought - how could good lose like this?

"And you are not an orphan," Was Gold's only reply before the crimson mists of Pandora's Box came to take him to his prison. Once he was trapped inside and Pan moved his fingers over the gears on the side of the box, she knew that the locking sound that echoed through the cave meant only one thing - that that prison was for all of eternity.

Emma swore none too quietly and pounded her fist in the sand so hard, she broke right through the golden crystals and smacked her fingers on the hard rock that lay below. When she raised her hand up from the sand it was just as crimson as the mists that'd come to take Gold away. Her voice was little more than a wracked sob when she asked, "How could good just _lose_  like this?"

And Pan, the dirty bastard he was, smiled down at her, at  _all_  of them, from where he stood and said, "Oh, Emma. You should know by now that all magic comes with a price. And I'm afraid you're only just beginning to pay the price."

That same unreadable look flashed over his face again as he moved his other hand out from behind his back, revealing Henry's beating heart in his palm. Three pairs of eyes darted to that of their son's, widening in horror and then narrowing in rage when each realized that the heart Henry had been holding was nothing more than a decoy all along.

"I know that you'll do anything I say now that I've got this."

"Not a chance," Neal all but hissed at Neverland's dark trickster. "Why would we ever take orders from you?"

"I'm glad you asked that question, Neal. What a clever grandson you turned out to be." Pan's lips twisted into a macabre smile as he tightened his grip on Henry's heart and murmured, "You'll take orders from me because if you don't, all I have to do is squeeze."

And he did just that, digging his nails into one of the valves of Henry's heart and laughing at the gasping noise the boy made when he pressed down harder. Emma whirled around to face Henry with a wordless scream on her lips; she didn't have the air to voice it as she watched him convulse in Regina's shaking arms, nor the will to tell Neal to stop trying to wake him long after his eyes had fluttered shut. She knew he couldn't be dead (please don't be dead, please don't be dead), at least not really. His heart was still in Pan's hand, so he must've just been knocked out.

"This is ridiculous!" Regina said with a yell that echoed around the cave.

Emma shook her head as Pan disappeared again. "No. This is war."

Unless they did what Pan wanted, it looked like none of them were leaving Neverland. But that didn't mean that they'd go down without a fight.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it's been a long time since I've updated and I'm sorry for that. But! I think this is the longest and feels-y chapter yet, so I hope that makes up for it.
> 
> Disclaimer: The Blue Fairy hasn't heard my wish, yet. I don't own Once Upon A Time. But when I do, I'll be sure to bring Graham back and make Gremma canon as hell.

 

* * *

" _Don't say that it's not fair that you're not the person you wanna be,_

_'cause oh, you'll be the end of me." - A Day to Remember_

Emma kneeled in the sand beside Henry, holding her breath and hoping,  _praying,_ that he'd be okay. He couldn't be dead, she knew that. More so, she believed it.

She watched Regina wave her hands over their son's unconscious form, ripples of golden magic spreading out over his body as she did. "This preservation spell can keep him in this state for a while longer, buy us time to get to Pan."

Emma nodded and stood up, turning to Neal. "You were a lost boy."  _And I was a lost girl,_  she thought but didn't say. "Any idea where he went?"

"Well, I mean..." He shrugged his shoulders. "I know where he lived, where his compound-"

Regina cut him off, a hard edge in her voice. "Well that's idiotic, we all know that." Her eyebrows furrowed as she looked up at the two. "You think he's stupid enough to go back?"

"Please, let's..." She trailed off as she turned back to Henry and Emma had to bite her lip to hold back from asking what the hell had gotten into her. Was this really the same woman who'd just helped them minutes before?

"Okay, enough."

"No, don't tell me what's enough!" Regina all but snarled as she gestured to Henry, laying too still in the sand before her. "My son is dying."

" _Our_  son." Emma said, emphasizing the "our" before she continued. "So yes, I know how you feel."

"I know how you feel, how you hurt, how your heart feels like it's going to come out of your chest because you know his isn't inside of him. I  _know,_  Regina." Her voice broke on a sob as Neal walked away to pace the floor of the cave. He was never very good at comforting others and she was glad he didn't try to comfort her. Because if he wrapped his arms around her, now, she knew that she'd break.

"You have no idea what I feel." There was venom in the other woman's words. "You have your parents, you have this..." She waved an arm at Neal as her dark eyes met Emma's light ones. "Person."

That person? Her gaze wandered to Neal's, heart beating painfully hard against her chest as she watched him gaze out to the dark sea below the cave. She could only wonder what he was really seeing, what he was really thinking. He was more than just "that person" to Emma. But she supposed now wasn't the time to tell Regina that; it'd only add insult to injury.

"And you have a pirate who pines for you, too, as if  _he_  wasn't enough." The queen's eyes flickered to Neal once more before they moved back to the savior.

Who pines for her? Emma would hardly call it that, but she still felt it insensitive to point out.

"You have everything, and yet you claim to know what  _I_  feel? All I have is Henry, and I'm not about to lose him because he is  _everything_  to me."

She knelt to the ground beside Regina once more, murmuring, "You're right. I  _don't_  know how you feel. You wanna run the show? Run it. But how do we save Henry?"

"I don't know." The brunette's eyes glimmered with tears unshed and she thought, so this is what the Evil Queen's been reduced to.

Neal walked back over to them, then, eyes moving to both of theirs before his gaze settled on Emma, standing once more. "Pan was powerful enough before, but now with Henry's heart...I don't know if we can hurt him."

"Yes we can. Look. When you swiped at him before, you nipped him." Regina said as she gestured to Emma's sword, the tip red with the dark trickster's blood.

"If he can bleed, we can hurt him. And if we can hurt him, we can kill him."

While the blonde wasn't sure that that was the best option, she'd said she'd let Regina run the show - and she'd honor that promise, whether she wanted to or not.

As they made their way out of the cave and back to the main island, Emma had to wonder if she was making the right choice. What if Regina turned on them again? What if she couldn't save their son, even with help from her parents? What if Hook found a way to leave the island without them, what if Gold were to stay as Dark as he was now? And what if...what if when they woke up Graham, he didn't feel the same about her anymore?

Emotions flickered over her face like the dappled light of the setting sun. She thought Neal must've known, must've seen, because she felt the familiar weight of his arm around her shoulders as they walked soon enough.

"You wanna tell me what's goin' on in that head a yours, Savior?" He asked around a grin that gave without taking, his voice low and rough and somehow warm through it all.

"I was just thinking, you know." She said as their eyes met, her sea blue to his chocolate brown. Or were they blue, too? She could never be sure.

His grin only widened at her words and damn it all to hell, she could remember why she'd fallen in love with him in the first place. "I know. You get this little look on your face when you're thinkin' hard about something."

"I do?" She raised an eyebrow at that, finding it hard not to smile at him when he was being so open with her. "I didn't know I had a thinking face."

"Oh, ya do. And I always loved it, really. Always loved you." He moved to step in front of her as they near Pan's camp. Regina was far away enough that Emma knew she wouldn't hear a word they said, but she still felt a little uneasy. Wary.

"Neal, I..." She trailed off, biting her lip once more. Because here they were, again.

"I know, Em. I know." He murmured as he brushed a stray lock of hair back behind her ear. "And I'm not blamin' you for it. Y'know, if the only good that came out of us bein' together was Henry, then I think we did pretty damn good."

"I think we did good, too." Damn it all to hell, her voice broke on the word "good" and his facial expression softened even as his voice got a touch rougher, lower.

"I'm not gonna make you choose between me and Henry. Or me and Graham. 'Cause I know what you'll choose.  _Who_ you'll choose." He leaned even closer, pressing a tender kiss to her forehead as the tears she'd been holding back all this time were finally set free.

And she wanted so badly to hate him for lingering, there, for looking into her eyes and murmuring, "I'd always choose Henry. And if it came down to it, I'd always choose you over Tamara, too."

But she couldn't hate him. So she hated herself.

"Seven hundred and thirty-two days, Neal."

"What?" He asked as his face contorted into a mask of confusion.

"How long I waited for you, telling myself I hated you everyday I did it." She whispered as she tilted her head up to look him full in the face. "And then once I found you in New York, I thought that maybe things could be different. That we could have another chance. But then I saw her and I realized you'd already found Tallahassee with someone else."

"Em, I..." She held up her hand to stop him. He fell quiet, then, and she felt like this was one of the first times someone had listened to her so intently in years.

"Back when we rescued you, and I told you I'd always love you. I meant it. But I meant it when I said that about Graham, too." She heaved out a heavy sigh as her voice threatened to break once more. "So I understand, and I'm not going to fault you for loving someone else, either."

She wanted to hate him. Oh, she wanted to.

But as she cupped the back of his head and brought him into her arms for the hug she so desperately needed, she knew she could never do it. She'd spent years trying, and years failing. Because she loved Neal Cassidy, through and through. And she loved Graham Humbert, true and true.

And Neal knew both of those things, knew it like the backseat of her car and the smooth metal of her keychain. The keychain she'd made into a necklace, the keychain she hadn't stopped wearing all seven hundred and thirty-two days she'd waited for him. The seven-hundred and thirty-two days he didn't show.

"I'm sorry." He whispered into the shadows of her hair as they clung to each other. "I'm sorry I couldn't be strong enough to come back for you. I wasn't strong enough, then. Brave enough."

His voice was as rough as the gravel driveway they'd never had as he leaned forward to whisper, "But I'm brave enough, now. And I'm gonna let go. I'm gonna let you go, Emma" in the shell of her ear.

And he did, stepping away from her and bounding down the dirt path to catch up to Regina and rally the others. She knew he meant more than just physically let her go, but she didn't allow herself to linger on that thought. Her gaze wandered from her first love to that of the horizon - the sky was still blue. Something about that calmed her, though why, she didn't know. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand, not sure whether she wanted to laugh or cry. But there wasn't any more time for tears, not now. She could cry again once they'd brought Graham back. But now? Now it was time to find Pan.


End file.
